JCHoops' quarter-season analysis: Hogs 8-0, but questions remain
With a win over Little Rock on Saturday, Arkansas moved to 8-0 with the regular season now a quarter of the way finished.
The game itself was synonymous with the season as a whole thus far: poor outside shooting, defensive lapses on shooters and cutters, sub-par free throw shooting and a lack of a full-time point guard.
Granted, those are only the negatives. Through eight games, there have been plenty of positive takeaways as well, like the team’s ability to finish inside, rebounding as a whole, but particularly offensive rebounding, the offensive movement is great at time, and ball-control has been solid.
Eight games is more than enough of a sample size to look at the strengths, weaknesses and tendencies of this team. That doesn’t mean that this team is limited to what it has been so far –fans saw massive improvement down the stretch last season and the emergence of Devo Davis and Jaylin Williams – but it does mean that the team has not been as impressive as expected thus far.
Before I go any further, I will say that 8-0 is 8-0. Being undefeated a quarter of the way through the season is a major accomplishment and should not be disregarded or discredited - especially with upsets happening throughout college basketball, like winless Texas Southern taking down No. 20 Florida on Monday.
Three-Point Shooting
What looked like a strength coming into the season has turned into a liability, as the Razorbacks are shooting an abysmal 28.9% from behind the arc, good for 314th out of 358 Division I teams.
So far, the team is shooting just under 21 threes per game, which is on pace with last year’s 21.9 attempts per game. Similar to last season, a majority of the total attempts from deep are coming from two players. Last year it was Moses Moody and JD Notae, who attempted 5.1 and 5.2 threes per game, respectively. This year, Notae and Chris Lykes attempt 7.6 and 3.4 attempts per game.
Moody and Notae combined last year to shoot on average 3.6 out of 10.4 per game for a respectable 34.6% as the bulk of the team’s shooting. This year, however, Notae and Lykes are on average making 3.2 out of 11.0 for a measly 29.1%.
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